What Is Web Hosting: The Ultimate Guide You Need To Read Right Now

You want to know what is web hosting? This guide will teach you everything there is to know about web hosting and all its related terms.

So before beginning, you should bookmark this page. Press Ctrl + D right now to bookmark this guide if you’re on Windows.

If you’re on Mac press cmd + D.

It is also recommended that you keep a coffee mug beside you to keep yourself energized.

Make sure that coffee mug is filled. An empty one, general speaking, isn’t of much use.

So are we ready then?

Let’s kill this.

How Does Web Hosting Work?

Regardless of the fact if you’re in the business of offering web hosting services, you need to know how it works.

Besides, most of us would like to be knowledgeable if we ever end up in a conversation where we have to talk about how does web hosting work.

More importantly though, one should be able to explain how things like domain names along with web hosting work.

And while we’re on that, let’s not leave out the likes of nameservers either.

From an overall perspective, one also needs to know how do these terms interrelate and hence have the complete picture.

For that purpose, and that purpose alone, you need to read this guide.

This guide will teach you in a clear and easy to understand language the simplest explanation for all these terms.

And more.

Now, to make the process of understanding just a tad bit easier, let’s assume a couple of things.

First, let’s assume that we (you and I) are setting up a brand new website for whatever purpose.

We could be setting it up for a client or whatever.

Secondly, let’s also assume that the website is complete as far as development and design are concerned.

This will help us understand the process much more quickly and efficiently.

And one last thing before we begin.

Keep in mind that even though terms like,

Domain

Hosting

DNS

are different terms but these can be had from a single online vendor.

Of course, that just adds to the overall convenience of the process.

For this guide though, we will go ahead and assume that you won’t be signing up for those services in a single click.

In other words, we’ll assume that we’ll handle all the three aforementioned terms separately.

As mentioned earlier, even though a single vendor can manage all three, it helps to illustrate how a particular piece of the puzzle fits into the overall picture.

Let’s Talk About Domain Names

To understand how web hosting works, you need to know about domain names first.

Now keep those assumptions in mind okay.

We don’t want to be talking about a concept only to find out you skipped out on the introduction paragraph. And hence don’t understand what we’re talking about there.

Your first step is to get a domain name.

Domain name is simply the address of any given website.

Like,

CNN.com

Nytimes.com

Twitter.com

facebook.com

So the next obvious question is how do you purchase a domain name?

It’s simple really.

You need to make use of a thing called registrar.

One of the most well-known registrar goes by the name of Namecheap.

In short, a domain name is the name of your website and you need to buy it before you can use it.

Another thing though.

Don’t think about skipping out on this step.

Because you’re going to need a domain name before you run your own new website.

Of course, a domain name isn’t something physical.

You can’t see it.

Nope.

You can’t touch it either.

A domain name is only a series of characters. Mostly strings.

These combination of characters grant your new website an identity.

Just like humans have names.

Businesses have names too. And since we’re living in the 21st century, your website must have a name too.

Now, the sad part depending on how you look at it, is this.

All the good domain names have been taken already.

Want to buy Google.com?

Nope sorry.

Too late

What about Alexa.com or even Linux.org?

Nope .

All are taken.

You’re going to have to come up with something new and unique.

So register your own domain name with any given domain registrar and get going.

Where Can You Register A Domain?

There are plenty of places where you can register domain names.

As we mentioned earlier as well, you can do so on sites like Namecheap.

But there are other options as well.

Other options such as,

GoDaddy

Domain.com

Network Solutions

These are some of the ones that you should definitely check out.

How Much Do Domain Names Cost?

No one can give you an answer for that question.

Why?

Because the pricing schemes for domain names are all over the place.

You can purchase a domain name for a few bucks.

And there are some domain names which can only be bought by paying hundreds of dollars.

All registrars sell domain names. In most cases the same ones.

So how do you differentiate between registrars?

The only difference between any two given registrars is the quality of service they offer.

You must be familiar with buying services from all the airfare deal websites.

Ask yourself the question, what is the difference between,

Orbitz

Expedia

Travelocity

You should have an answer now.

All of the three mentioned travel deal sites offers the same thing. Deals for flights.

How do they differ?

They differ from each other with things such as prices and any extra services they may or may not offer.

Regardless of the service, if you’re on a budget, it doesn’t matter which service you choose for your Delta flight.

You’ll still get the same smelly, cramped and uncomfortable seat on the same Delta flight irrespective who sold you the ticket.

But talking about extra services from registrars.

Know that even though registrars may make a big deal out of it, you don’t really need those extra services.

Registrars will push hard to make you believe that what “extra services” they are offering are absolutely critical.

But in reality, they are not.

Why Do Registrars Sell Extra Services With Domain Names?

Web hosting and all its components are part of a huge network of businesses. You need to understand all of them.

The simple fact of the matter is that domain name reselling isn’t exactly a high margin business.

It is actually quite a low margin one.

At least that is the case as far as the current decade is concerned.

Therefore, to make up for the low-cost domain names, registrars try to upsell.

How do they upsell?

Absolutely right. They sell more by offering the other “extra services”.

That is their main objective now, to be honest.

So what’s the rule of thumb here?

The general rule is that if you’re in doubt about any of the registrar’s extra services, don’t go for it.

In other words, just buy the simple domain name and be done with it.

But just before we move on to other more important things, there are a couple of more thing you need to know about domain names.

You probably know the fact that every computer that is connected to the internet has a unique number.

That number, as we all learned in high school, is called an IP address.

What’s An IP Address Exactly?

You don’t need to take an undergraduate course to understand IP address.

At least at the moment, you don’t.

An IP address is basically a phone number for your computer.

Of course, that isn’t exactly true in the strictest sense of the word.

In fact, some might even call it a gross oversimplification.

But for the purposes of this guide, it is more than sufficient.

Think of a domain name as an easy-to-understand alias for an IP address.

To put it another way, a domain name is more memorable than an IP address that mainly consists of numbers and dots.

Both are used to identify a computer that is connected to the internet.

So when you connect to the internet and type cnn.com in your browser’s address bar, you’re making use of an IP address.

But instead of having to input something like 50.57.247.186, you simply have to remember, and type, cnn.com.

Of course, this explanation is also an oversimplification.

But for our purposes, it will work.

Most readers want to understand this stuff better, not to pursue a Ph.D. in it.

Web Hosting Vs Domain

Web Hosting and Domain Names are interrelated terms.

Is There A Difference Between Domain Name And Web Hosting?

Yes.

But before we explain the difference, know that it’s not your fault if you thought they were the same.

In fact, such confusion is pretty common among people who are new to the internet and how websites work.

Domain name and web hosting sound different. And hence are different. If it helps you to remember that way then we’re all good.

However, you will need to know much more in order to know the real difference.

You’re in luck since we’re going to do just that.

Let you know more.

We told you in the beginning that a domain name is like a name of a person.

It is an identity.

Now think of domain name as a house. What’s the identity of any given house?

Right.

Its address.

So a domain name is like an address of a house.

Web hosting is different.

If you allow us to go on with our house analogy, know that web hosting is basically the space in your house.

You use that space to put some furniture in your house so that it looks good. You also do it because you want your friends to compliment you but that’s another matter.

Web sites are named a bit differently than houses, though.

Houses have things like area code and street name in their full address.

Sometimes, we use names of the area we live in and some number in order to pinpoint the house.

But a website’s name is just a series or numbers or some combination of letters.

Notice we didn’t say a combination of words.

Because that used to be true when the internet was new.

Now people come up with all sorts of weird names (which are not words) for their websites and hence we can’t just say a combination of words.

What about web hosting then?

How does it relate to a house?

It goes like this.

If a house is built with materials such as steel and wood then a web hosting relies on peripherals such as a hard disk and RAM to store files and process them later.

Hope it clears up the confusion for you.

Ready to move on?

Great.

What Do You Have To Do In Order To Register A Domain Name (Step By Step Guide)

Registering a domain name is just one of the steps in the overall process of signing up for a web hosting company.

The first step should obviously involve you coming up with a neat name for your new website. Make it unique and interesting. But not weird.

The best way to follow up from step one is to come up with multiple unique variations. There is a good chance that someone else might have taken your “unique” website name. So prepare for that.

Go to a site like GoDaddy.com and then search for the name on the registrar’s site.

Let’s say you have searched for your unique name and have found that it hasn’t been taken. Sign up for the name right there and then before it too gets snatched.

To order your domain name you’re going to have to pay a registration fee. Now, this fee can range from anywhere between $10 and $40. It really depends on the kind of domain name you want to get registered. In other words, it comes down to the TLD(more on TLD later in the guide). You can usually pay via PayPal. Some websites also offer credit card as a payment method.

That’s it. The registration process is complete.

But wait just a second. There is more. Now you have a domain name. Right?Okay, great.Make sure you point the new domain name to the web hosting you subscribed to.That will be accomplished by changing the related DNS record.

A Guide To How Domain Name Registration Works

Think of the registration process of a domain name as buying real estate.

The real estate here means online (internet) real estate.

So if you want to buy some “real estate” you’ll have to provide a good bit of information about yourself.

That’s a small price to pay if you want to have the privilege of owning your own website and hence occupying a tiny corner of the online world.

And remember, the online world is for all practical purposes a public space.

What are the guidelines then?

Well, there are no set guidelines as far as registration goes.

In fact, the registrar has little to do with domain name registration guidelines.

But most of the time people may use the term DNS to say things like “ Can you help me to setup DNS for a domain name I just bought?”.

Or people may say “Can someone help me with the nameservers for the new domain name?”.

Make no mistake, understanding how exactly a DNS works is hard.

Probably the hardest part of understanding a website’s setup process.

Most people find the concept too abstract so we’ll make an extra effort to slow things down and explain.

In simple words that is.

How Does A DNS Actually Work?

If we remember correctly, we told you in the last section that a domain name (cnn.com) was similar to an IP address in the sense that it acted as an alias for the IP address ( 20.57.247. 186 for example).

So who exactly keeps a track of the information related to that process?

It makes sense that some entity has to put in charge of determining that cnn.com should point to, let’s say, 20.52.247.189.

Well, there is your answer.

DNS is what solves that problem.

On a practical note though, a lot of companies who sell you domain names also keep that DNS information.

With that said, there are also companies who only specialize in maintain and providing online DNS services.